


Meet Me at the Rose Garden

by hannahcalifornia



Series: Dalton Big Bang 2020 [7]
Category: Dalton Academy Series
Genre: Dalton Big Bang, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:34:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25246972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hannahcalifornia/pseuds/hannahcalifornia
Summary: After years of estrangement, Logan Wright and Julian Larson reconnect during a White House summer internship under the Obama Administration in 2015.
Relationships: Julian Larson-Armstrong/John Logan Wright III
Series: Dalton Big Bang 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1771465
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Meet Me at the Rose Garden

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday Dani!!!

“Oh my fucking God, it’s him. It’s really him, is that really him?” Logan thought.

“Jesus Christ, he’s _here?_ Fuck me. I must be dreaming. I must be losing my goddamn mind.” Julian Larson thought. 

Every intern in the building had a similar sentence run through their minds. But the other interns were, understandably, shocked, amazed, and overwhelmed by the presence of President Barack Obama. They thought, I can't believe all my hardwork has paid off and now I'm here, standing in front of the leader of the free world. Logan Wright and Julian Larson, however, were shocked, amazed, and overwhelmed by the presence of each other. They thought, I can't believe I might get my best friend back. I can't believe I get a second chance.

🇺🇸

When Logan Wright applied to be an intern for the White House his junior year as a International Studies major at American University, he felt confident both in his ability to get the job and to excel at it. He was more than just a senator’s son now, he was more than just an extension of his father. Years of intensive trauma therapy taught him that. And, crucially, it taught him how to look in the mirror and see he was so much more than his past and the things that happened to him. 

In therapy, Logan learned he was more than the boy whose mother left him and had trouble keeping his anger in. He was more than the boy who had lost his virginity in the eight grade in a bathroom stall to a boy who didn’t even like him and then chased after boys he knew he couldn’t keep. He was more than the boy who was hospitalized for PTSD after he witnessed a night of terror that left his best friend in a coma, his mentor dead, and another boy in prison. He was more than the boy who couldn’t say I love you, too back to Julian Larson and lost touch with one of his closest friends. He knew these things would always be apart of him, but they didn’t have to define him. That gave him the courage to change.

By 2015, Logan Wright was making a name for himself, both at his university, where his peers knew him as their outspoken, loyal, and fearless student body president, and in the NGO world as well, where he had become a prominent youth ambassador for Save the Children with a knack for diplomacy. He enjoyed helping and advocating for others, vowing that no child should suffer and that the world’s complicity in their suffering was an unforgivable atrocity. Coming from other twenty one year olds, his speeches might come off as naive. To the conservatives, of course, they did. But to many, Logan came across earnest and informed. They were impressed. There were plenty of guys who looked like him in the White House, and who had his family background, but few who had his heart and conviction. Logan was proud of that. 

And there was the fact that Chelsea Clinton had personally slipped an application to Michelle Wright at a dinner event in an envelope that had “Logan, Make America proud - HRC” scrawled on the front. A congratulations, you’re interning for the White House followed soon after. So, yeah, when the first day of the summer internship arrived, Logan brushed back his shoulder length blonde hair, put on his best suit, shined his shoes, and walked in with his shoulders back like he fucking ran the place. Maybe one day, he thought, he would.

🇺🇸

Julian Larson’s path to Washington was a little different, but just as earned. After the night known around the world as Hell Night, Julian had unenrolled from Dalton Academy completely. He distanced himself from his old group of friends, leaving them on read, and decided to finish up high school with private tudors so he could focus on his therapy and post-coma recovery. He also, at first, wanted to dive right back into acting, which he did, pouring everything he had into auditions for Nightwing which led to his acclaimed eight minute cameo in the new Batman reboot. From the outside, things looked like they were going in the right direction for Julian and he’d be on his way to a mansion of his own and an Oscar or two. But his inner circle knew Hollywood life for Julian was unsustainable.

The six day shoot for Batman left him physically and emotionally exhausted, and he found it difficult to focus on set and the interests of Hollywood peers nauseating. Luckily the director’s wanted Julian’s involvement to be a surprise so he didn’t have to do a huge press tour leading up to the film’s February release. He popped in at Comic Con to a standing ovation, but had anxiety about his ability to complete his contract for three Nightwing films, and doubted if he even wanted to.

Being disabled and having to deal with the ups and downs of treatment and recovery in America’s fucked up healthcare system fed Julian’s increasing disillusionment with the entertainment industry. He now knew and saw things he could not unsee. Witnessing how his privilege, as a wealthy, famous, connected person, determined his access to quality healthcare, disgusted him. It was hard enough to go through this with all the support in the world. The people left behind by the system were suffering even more and they were doing it silently. Worst of all, nobody, not even the men and women dressed in superhero suits and raking in millions in cash, seemed to care. 

Julian's therapist suggested he channel some of this indignant liberal rage into something productive, like getting involved in the 2012 presidential election. Calls were made, and, quickly Julian Larson was on a bus in Iowa with a bunch of young people knocking on doors. To say the swing voters of Iowa were surprised to open their doors and see Nightwing was an understatement. But, on the road, Julian felt a lightness again he thought he lost that night with Adam Clavell forever. 

Tommy Vietor, the Special Assistant to the president, saw that lightness as well. He thought that Julian was compassionate and funny, and just what their team needed to help get the youth vote out and Obama re-elected. By the end of the summer, the campaign hired Julian under the official title of Youth Consultant that everyone referred to as Operation: Night Wing. He spent a lot of time trying to explain Snapchat and Tumblr to older millennials who acted like they knew everything about social because they like, invented Facebook.

After Obama’s victory, Julian did have to return back to his day job as a superhero, but he and the Obama bros always kept in touch. His experiences that year inspired him to go to college and earn a degree in Foreign Policy and Communications at USC while he acted. After completing his junior credits, Tommy texted him, “if you need an internship lmk. assuming nightwing: full throttle is wrapped ;)” So Julian corrected him, “It’s Nightwing: Watchman’s Edge, Tommy. I know you and your nerd friends know this.” Then he sent in an application. A congratulations, you’re interning for the White House soon followed. So yeah, he put on his sunglasses, a shirt and tie, some product in his curls and walked into the White House like he was fucking Julian Larson and he wasn’t sorry to be there, bastards. Because he wasn’t sorry, he was proud.

🇺🇸

Like the other interns, Logan Wright and Julian Larson had lots of expectations for their summer at the White House. They expected that they’d work hard. They expected that they’d become more disillusioned with this country called the United States America, but more hopeful for it too. That they’d consume copious amount of coffee on the job and copious amount of alcohol off of it. That they’d have days where they felt they were frauds and everyone else around them knew what they were doing. And others where they realized everyone around them were frauds and no one knew what they were doing, not even the President of the United States. They  expected they probably wouldn’t spend much time with POTUS, but they’d hopefully get a picture or two with him. And maybe, if they were lucky, Obama would give one of his famous relationship pep talks to them. Not that they were even in relationships. But still, they craved a little sage advice, to tell their grandchildren about. And, of course, they expected to get yelled at and have to make coffee runs, because it was an internship, after all.

What they didn’t expect was to walk into the White House that first day and see their best friend they had been estranged from for years. They didn't expect to work together, to comfort each other, and to finally talk. Let alone to kiss each other, to sleep with each other, and to propose to each other that summer in the White House. But they did. Eventually they’d become the first gay couple to marry in the White House’s famous Rose Garden. They’d make history. But all that was yet to come.

First, they were just two guys, walking into their first day of work.

**Author's Note:**

> Started for the Jogan Day Prompt of Big Bang but this is a series!  
> daltonficbigbang.tumblr.com


End file.
